Working toward a better tomorrow

We asked Jacob Deng about Wadeng Wings of Hope, a charity he founded to help his south Sudan homeland

Jacob Deng, at his downtown Halifax office, is fundraising to build schools in south Sudan. (INGRID BULMER / Staff)

Jacob Deng of Halifax started the Canadian charity Wadeng Wings of Hope in 2005 to raise funds to educate children in South Sudan.

One of the Lost Boys of the Second Sudanese Civil War, Deng found himself at a young age struggling to survive after his village of Duk Padiet was attacked in 1987. He was separated from his family in the chaos.

After 15 years in refugee camps, Ethiopia and Kenya, he came to Nova Scotia in 2003 under the Canadian government refugee resettlement program.

He returned to Duk Padiet in 2006 for the first time in 18 years and was reunited with his three sisters.

He graduated in 2010 with a commerce degree from Saint Mary’s University and now works for the provincial Department of Economic and Rural Development and Tourism.

A father of three, Deng, 30, strongly believes that educating young people is the key to alleviating conflict, poverty and strife in South Sudan.

Information about Wadeng Wings of Hope can be found at www.wadeng.org.

Q: What does Wadeng mean?

A: It means better tomorrow, look into the future, it will get better. This is the word my mom used to tell me when I was a little boy, when I was growing up until the time I left, when we were forced to separate in 1987, when I was only seven. It is one of the words that I remember when I am thinking about her.

Q: What happened when you were a boy?

A: My village was attacked in 1987. The attackers were the northern Sudan army. They came at midnight. They were burning down houses and killing people and everybody was running for their own life. Luckily, a gun did not get me that night. I ran but I was forced to separate from my siblings and my parents. . . . That was the (end) of my life and my world as a kid.

I was in a refugee camp for 15 years just existing with dreams that you never know are going to be fulfilled. I am a grown up man now but I still feel like a child from that nightmare. It doesn’t go away from me. So the best way I deal with it is to help people in Southern Sudan.

Q: What is the main purpose of Wadeng Wings of Hope?

A: The main goal of my organization is to create opportunities . . . to bring education to the people, higher education, secondary school and technical school. . . . Being alone as a kid since I was seven years old, what I came to learn is if you give education, it is a tool nobody can take away unless they take your life away.

It is a tool that empowers people in a positive way. When empowered, people control their own life and that is what I believe in. . . . That is the beginning of life, the beginning of respect, the beginning of hard work and the beginning of value.

Q: What it is like now for young people in South Sudan?

A: The situation is very bad right now due to lack of school opportunities. . . . The average child there is not going to school right now because the school is under the tree, there are no trained teachers. The structure is not consistent.

The food security is not there. The human security is not there. Things are really getting tough in Southern Sudan. . . .

If you have an idea and resources and you want to do anything in South Sudan, you are welcome politically. The government in South Sudan are very friendly with development. . . . The only thing lacking is they can’t provide the basic needs to their own people, things like security and infrastructure.

There has been recent tribal conflict in the remote State of Jonglei (in South Sudan). We didn’t know it would reach Duk Padiet but there was an attack (on Jan. 15) in which 86 people were killed and 20,000 people were displaced.

Young tribal youth have been going around the states (of South Sudan) attacking each others tribes. I think it is more because young people are jobless. Young people have no opportunity to start to live. . . . Most of them were born during the war. Now, (with independence of South Sudan in 2011) you have to have an education or skill to access the resources. That is not there. It is lacking.

The solution is more of finding away to keep young people busy, to keep young people (from) turning to guns and violence and seeing a reason to live.

Q: What has your organization been able to do so far and what is working on?

A: Since 2005, we have distributed 500 goats that we give to returnees. People are coming back from refugee camps. (Returnees) come with only their hands to the village that they call home. . . . We have (raised) money to drill one well (in Duk Padiet). We need more. We brought six sewing machines. It was supposed to be a long-term project but because of funding, we still struggle. We bought six sewing machines to manufacture 100 uniforms to give to the school children. . . . The parents told me they didn’t let the girls go to school because they are half dressed. There are no clothes.

My dream and primary goal is to build a high school in Duk Padiet. It is not going to be just like a school here in North America. It is a school where the community will be coming, to share, discuss, engage, empower themselves, looking at the future, the present and the past. It is not just children I am trying to help. . . .

The school would be at the border between different tribes and that is going to make the school unique because it will be like a peace tool. When you bring a new generation together in an umbrella of learning, you are involving parents because when (children) go home they will talk about the values of different children they meet from different tribes.

What I have now is about $60,000 and that can only build two classrooms. My fundraising goal right now to start Phase 1 (of the school) is to raise $250,000.

Wadeng Wings of Hope is also raising funds for urgent aid, such as food, medicine and shelter, to help the displaced people of Duk Padiet.